Friday, September 28, 2012

i mentioned a few posts back that my 1:00-10:00pm schedule started back up at work. this is always a little hard to get used to, especially because i really only work that schedule on mondays, tuesdays and every other friday. so it doesn't give my body time to adjust to normal sleeping hours, normal eating hours, normal socializing hours, and so on. but even worse - it makes it difficult to hang out with my husband. he's extremely busy at work and is part of a project that takes him out of town pretty often. which means that there's really not that much time for us to do things we get used to doing when i'm not training a new hire class - things like going for evening runs or bike rides together, spur of the moment indian food dinner dates, catching a concert together during the week here & there.
by the time i get home at 10:30, all wound up from the day, he's tired from working 10+ hours and somehow fitting in a work out or two (i'm telling you, he's a superhero).

so, we're making it a point to enjoy the little things & making sure that we can still set aside at least one date night per week, like we do when i'm not working this schedule. when i tell people we have a "date night" they usually say, isn't every night a date night? since we don't have kids, i guess that's the assumption. but really, we often do things separately during the week - he'll be at the gym late, i'll go have happy hour with some lady friends, he'll have a work dinner, you get the jist. we're not one of those couples who has to do every single activity together. so for us, it's always been really fun to designate our date nights at the beginning of the week and make sure that we make time to have drinks and cook a meal together, watch trash tv, or go to one of "our" restaurants, etc.

we're heading to dallas this weekend to see my family + celebrate my mom's birthday. i'm really excited to spend time with them since it seems like forever since i last saw everyone! i'm also hoping to see some long lost friends that i left back in dallas, so i'll report back on monday with some pictures.
i hope you all have a great weekend!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

goal #14 on my 30before30 list is to start a sunday night supper tradition. i've posted some ideas before here and here, so i'll share with you some more images that have me inspired to reach this goal soon...

i think fall is the perfect time to host a small dinner party, so i need to get to planning this and stop just talking about it! it'd be really nice to have the windows open and be able to roam back and forth from our backyard to the kitchen for refills and not have to worry about letting the heat (or mosquitoes!) in.
i'm hoping this will turn in to a tradition with our friends where one sunday a month, a different person hosts at their house. maybe they make the food if the guests bring the wine? i like the sound of that.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

﻿okay, yes. i know it's wednesday and this post is way delayed. but i have a really good excuse, i promise. my 1:00-10:00 schedule started back up at work, since i have a new hire class to train. and that always kind of turns my life upside down for the first few weeks while i get used to it. that's a good excuse, right? right.

so, here is what my weekend looked like + some scenes from the last few days. promise i'll be back tomorrow with a real post.

the 5k that i ran on saturday (this is post-race, hence the sweatiness),

patio time + mimosas with my man of honor,

dates with my man (first up - fried chicken, next up - trivia challenge...he won 2 games, i won 2 games),

and some scenes from my backyard,

as soon as i hit "publish", i'm working on tomorrow's post to make up for my lack of posting!

Friday, September 21, 2012

at the beginning of august, i mentioned that i signed up for my first ever half marathon (since it is #8 on my 30before30 list), and talked about how training for it was not going quiiite as well as i had hoped. and, well....i just hated running.

but you guys...we're starting to become friends, running & i.

i'm supposed to be training 5 times a week, and i won't lie by saying that that's always the case. there have definitely been a few times that the extra vodka + soda from the night before kept me in bed instead of getting up for a run. but for the most part, i'm actually enjoying it now and i've noticed a huge, huge difference in my endurance level. it's also helped me stick to eating healthier (again - this is not always the case. i definitely have days where i eat berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream, or several slices of pizza. i will never turn those down!)...i've started to realize that there's truth behind those super fit people who say, "one should eat to live, not live to eat" - it makes such a huge difference for me to go run after several days of healthy, clean eating versus a day of say, tailgating at a longhorns game!

and although i always plan to have those days of mini-indulgences and late night desserts, by reminding myself how i feel on my runs after healthy eating, i hope to minimize those and make sure they're rare enough to be counted as treats.

and with it still being in the 90's here in texas, it's a tad bit miserable to go for a run anytime after 8:30am and any time before 7:30pm, so i keep day dreaming of cooler weather and being able to take off whenever i feel like it. i still have about 3 months until the marathon, which means at least 2 of those months should be in cool and cold weather. (cold weather according to texas standards, anyway)

but until then, i'll "cheers" to running, since we're getting along marvelously for right now and i'd love to keep it that way.

ps. i'm running a little 5k with a friend tomorrow morning. hoping for nice weather and not too many hills!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

now, i realize that's a little bit out of my control. just because i go to a place where they regularly appear doesn't mean they'll necessarily show up for me - i know that. but, dammit, i will try my hardest to see them.

i'm slightly nerdy, so learning about why these beautiful lights show up in the sky was really intriguing to me (energy charged particles colliding with atoms! imagine me pushing up my glasses with my index finger right now), and now i just have to be able to take it in for myself.

i've been collecting these images the past several months & they just take my breath away every time i look at them, so i want to share them with you.

all of these pictures were taken in alaska, which is where i'm eventually hoping to see them. within the next few years, we'll be going on an alaskan cruise with the full intention of crossing #23 off! it helps that my brother and his girlfriend live in seattle, where we'd have to depart from, so we'd get to spend time with them too. 2 birds, 1 stone.

i don't want to be one of those people who is so consumed by taking pictures of something that they lose sight of actually getting to enjoy it in person. you know those people, right? i usually find myself wanting to poke them and say, "look at it!! and not through a lens!!"

Thursday, September 13, 2012

i love, love, love movies & i'm the type of person that can spend an entire winter weekend ﻿on the couch with the husband, a comfy blanket, a bottle of wine and several movies. of course it doesn't have to be in the winter, but summertime makes me want to be outside!

so i've picked four movies that i love for four completely different reasons, but i thought they'd all be appropriate for a movie night that i'll host when it gets cooler outside.

for when you're hosting your intelligent indie friends:

vicky cristina barcelona

for this movie night, i'm picturing:

bottles of red wine,

a mini painting party (since javier bardem & penelope cruz's characters are painters...think: small canvases with watercolors for guests to take home),

and

paella for dinner (it does take place in spain, after all)

for a girl's night quote-along:

romy & michele's high school reunion

for this movie night, i'm picturing:gummy bears/jelly beans/candy corn ("all i've had to eat for the past 6 days"),name tags a'la high school reunion
andspiked punch in a big bowl, just like what you'd find at an 80's prom.

for your group of friends that love stupid humor as much as you do:

step brothers
for this movie night, i'm picturing: chocolate chip pancakes for dinner ("i like to have fresh fruit in the house and chocolate chips in my pancakes"),sweater vests or tuxedo shirts required,
and
as an activity - creating autotune songs on your iphone a'la "boats 'n hoes"

for watching with friends that have children, or adults like me that love wes anderson and anything stop-motion that's "supposed" to be a kid's movie:the fantastic mr. fox
for this movie night, i'm picturing:spiked apple cider (that's what floods the tunnel),a christmas themed pot-luck (see picture below)
and"thief masks" required